Donna Summer — 1948-2012

Donna Summer, the disco queen of the 1970s and 1980, died May 17 from complications with cancer. She was 63.

Ms. Summer recorded five live videos at the Sahara hotel-casino in Stateline in the last 1970s. (It is now the Horizon.)

She also performed in the South Shore Room at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and the old Caesars Tahoe (now MontBleu). In 2006, Howie Nave, the emcee at Harveys Improv in Stateline, opened for Ms. Summer at Cache Creek casino. In 2008, she was at the Peppermill in Reno.

Donna Summer

When she played Harrah’s at the lake it would be for two-week stints, a dinner and cocktail show – so 14 shows per week. This was between 1984 and 1987.

“She packed the place,” John Packer of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe told Lake Tahoe News. “She would fill both shows. She was very high energy — a great performer.”

Ms. Summer also owned a home on Kingsbury Grade during the 1980s.

Some of her most popular songs were “Last Dance,” “She Works Hard for the Money” and “Bad Girls.”

Ms. Summer won five Grammy Awards and six American Music Awards, and charted three multi-platinum albums.

She was born LaDonna Adrian Gaines on Dec. 31, 1948.

Ms. Summer is survived by her husband, three daughters, and four grandchildren.

— Kathryn Reed